


A Worthy Guy

by JulieJewels



Series: About Peter Parker [4]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man - All Media Types, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Fluff, Identity Reveal, IronDad and SpiderSon, POV Outsider, Peter Parker is Worthy, Peter is Worthy, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Has A Heart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-28
Updated: 2019-03-28
Packaged: 2019-12-25 16:12:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,821
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18264836
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JulieJewels/pseuds/JulieJewels
Summary: Abe is irritated and panicky and horribly agitated, and that's before he stumbles into a room full of Avengers. Plus one Peter Parker, of course, becasue he seems to be at the heart of everything lately.





	A Worthy Guy

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, guys! This one is a little longer, but I've decided against splitting it up into two chapters. As always, thanks for all of your kind reviews and kudos! They mean a lot. I hope you enjoy!
> 
> Also, if you haven't read the other stories in this series, the first few paragraphs might be a little confusing, but otherwise, you should be fine.

Abe had got the idea right after the _Fiery Attack on New York._

At least, that’s what the press called it now. Abe could have come up with any number of more creative names for the debacle, but what did he know about the population of New York and their reading preferences? For all he knew, the headline of an article had to be flashy and horrible for people to pay it any mind.

But Abe had been _there,_ right in the heart of it, and neither the headlines nor the articles themselves did the real thing justice.

He still remembered the screams and the silence and the _fear_ when all they could do was wait. He remembered the first phone call he’d made once the crisis had been resolved, and the second and the third, and he remembered the relief as everyone answered, one after the other.

He also remembered thinking of those who wouldn’t answer. Of those who were calling but only got the ringing in response. No familiar voice at the end of the tunnel. No one picking up and ending the freaking nightmare.

And, above all, he remembered Tony Stark, pulling them all out of their somber mood and getting them excited again. He remembered leaving the Tower still afraid, still shaky, but less crushed somehow. More put together.

A hot bath, a cup of hot tea and a cold shower later, he’d realized something. The Avengers, as dangerous as they’d been made out to be time and again, had the uncanny ability to take away fear and make it into something else. They had, somewhere along the way, become more than simply Earth’s protectors. A symbol of trust and safety, perhaps.

A symbol of hope.

Which was how his idea had been born.

There had been five victims in the Attack. The media claimed that the number was miraculously small and Abe felt inclined to agree, but he suspected that the number seemed much bigger to the families and friends of the dead. Plus, there were so many more who had lost their homes, their houses, everything they’d had. Not even the Avengers could fix all that fast enough, and not even Tony Stark’s seemingly bottomless purse could mend all the holes that had been created.

So. It was simple as much as it was ingenious. A fundraiser.

With the Avengers.

All the funds raised would go to the families who had lost and whose houses had not been repaired yet – or wouldn’t be for a while. But it was about more than just the money for Abe. It was about recognizing what had happened, sparing it a thought or two, and then, collectively, starting to move on.

He’d talked about it with Peter and the boy had been all for it. As had Tony Stark, apparently. The engineer had even promised to lend his Compound to the cause, which was more than Abe could have ever hoped for. A few days later, Peter had let him know that some of the other Avengers had agreed to participate, too. Captain America, the Winter Soldier, the Falcon, Hawkeye, Black Widow, Dr. Bruce Banner, Thor and Tony Stark were all down with the idea.

It was a little overwhelming, to be honest. An unimportant dude like him, getting all those huge people onto his side.

He wasn’t under the illusion that he could have managed any of that without Peter, though, and he was planning on letting the boy know exactly how much he appreciated his help. Which brought him to his next problem.

He had Physics now, and it was the last class of the day. That, in itself, was less a of problem and more of an advantage, but Abe’s eyes glided over to the chair a row over from his. It was still empty, the way it had been the last two hundred times he’d checked.

It was Peter Parker’s chair.

And yes, that was bad, because he and Peter had agreed last week that they would visit Stark Tower together to go over his plans with Tony Stark. That was supposed to be _today._

So, Abe was willing to admit that he was panicking.

First thing after he’d noticed Peter’s absence in the morning, Abe had run to Ned. The guy was bound to know Parker’s whereabouts, as he always did, and surely enough, Abe was informed that Peter had been in a car accident and was home sick until further notice.

Abe wasn’t really proud of it, much less so in retrospect, but his first thought was not of Peter. As soon as Ned had spoken the words ‘Peter’, ‘is’, and ‘home’ in quick succession, Abe’s mind had cried out and sped off in a hundred different directions. He’d had to take a few breaths, calm down and force himself to ask Ned about the state of the other boy.

Peter was apparently doing fine. (Not according to the rumor mill, though, spreading whispers about Peter Parker, the Hero, saving the world again and sacrificing himself for the good of the many. Abe didn’t have the energy to participate or even care. He only had enough to worry)

 _That_ was the point where Abe had let himself panic and he had not stopped since. Ned knew nothing of the fundraiser and Peter wasn’t picking up, so Abe was on his own with no clue as to what to do. Was he still expected to show up at the Tower? On the one hand, he didn’t want to make a complete fool out of himself appearing there unannounced, but at the same time he would’ve hated to make the arguably most powerful man in the world angry just because he missed their scheduled meeting.

So when the bell rang (Abe had not heard a word Mrs. Warren had said and he was not even ashamed), he dutifully picked up his school bag, swung it over his shoulder and began the short but perilous journey to Stark Tower.

He entered the majestic building carefully, expecting the taste of dread in his mouth, but what he got instead was the complete opposite. Though the Tower had physically not changed one bit since he'd last been there, it had still undergone a thorough transformation. It had, for instance, managed to completely shed its ominous aura from a few weeks prior. Workers who clearly knew what they were doing ran around, chatted and emmited the normal vibes of people on a mission. Reassured, Abe stalked over to the reception desk. He cleared his throat and the woman behind the counter looked up with arched eyebrows. Was he not supposed to do this?

Too late. “Uh … hi! I’m here for a meeting with, uh … Tony Stark?”

In her defense, the girl covered her surprise pretty well. She motioned to divans on one side of the huge lobby and said, “Wait there and someone will come and get you.”

Abe did as he’d been told and not even five minutes after he’d plopped down onto the soft cushions, Pepper Potts herself made an appearance.

She walked right up to him. He barely had the wits to stand up and grab his backpack before she was in front of him. “Abraham Brown?” she asked in a stern business voice, but there was warmth in her smile and kindness in her expression. In a weird way, Abe felt himself relax a little.

“Y-yeah,” he said.

“Come with me, Tony Stark is expecting you.”

Wow. That sounded like in a movie.

Abe had never met Miss Potts before, but he’d heard rumors, as had everyone. She was a capable woman – had to be to keep a company like SI afloat. But her success had not managed to make her vain or entitled, at least from what Abe could tell at first glance. She emitted an acute sense of confidence and power, but she seemed nice and pleasant all the same, which only added to her impressiveness. True, he was meeting her for the first time, but he was normally a pretty good judge of character and he’d learned not to ignore his hunches.

The woman handed him a badge, pulling his attention away from her face, and he accepted it with awe, holding it in trembling hands. They passed the turnstile gates and walked into an elevator that took them up, up, up.

“We’re going to the residential floors of the Tower now,” Miss Potts explained. “You’re going to have to sign a non-disclosure agreement and I will have to ask you not to snoop around. That being said,” she turned to him with a spark in her eye and a curve to her lips, “you might get more than you bargained for today.”

Abe’s mouth felt dry. He wanted to ask what she meant, but the elevator dinged and the doors opened and there really were no words left.

Like everything else in Stark Tower, the highest floors were, of course, magnificent. Miss Potts handed him a small stack of papers that he signed without really looking, and then she walked away. It took him a second to realize he was supposed to follow.

When he did, everything happened so fast.

Suddenly, he was in a huge living room that had nothing in common with a room except for its four walls and the ceiling. Other than that, it could have been called a field or a meadow for all Abe cared, considering its size. People got lost in it like ants in a rug (and Abe had ample experience with _that_ ), which was one of the reasons he didn’t immediately recognize the Avengers in the room.

He’d stopped dead in his tracks long ago, but if he hadn’t, this would have certainly done the trick.

Captain America, the Falcon, Black Widow, and Hawkeye were casually lounging on the couch, watching TV. They didn’t seem to have noticed him, but from what Abe had heard about them, they probably had. They weren’t wearing their costumes and Abe would have doubted their true identities if he hadn’t spent his childhood (and early teenage years) obsessing over the heroes.

He couldn’t be fooled. Not with this.

To his right somewhere, Tony Stark jumped up from a desk. “Uh,” he said, hurrying towards him, but funnily enough, Abe had trouble focusing on the billionaire. His eyes would always wander back to the group on the couch, until Tony Stark was right there, filling his whole field of vision.

“Don’t worry about them,” he said casually, as if it were that easy. Abe wanted to scoff, but, well, the situation wasn’t right and he would have never forgiven himself for it. So he said nothing, just sat down at the desk Tony Stark had abandoned earlier, taking great care to keep his back to the heroes on the couch. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to focus.

Tony Stark sat down across from him. He offered him something – tea probably, or juice, or coffee –, but Abe politely declined. His stomach was churning anyway and he didn’t think he could manage anything on top of the small breakfast he’d had that day.

“So, I’m sorry Peter can’t join us today,” Tony Stark said, leaning forward on his elbows. Abe still had difficulty adjusting to the casualness of the conversation. It was like talking to a random adult and not freaking _Iron Man._

“Yeah, me too.”

Stark sighed. “He was in an accident yesterday. Nothing serious, but he’s on bed rest for a week.”

“So he’s going to be okay?” Abe felt inclined to ask.

Stark nodded wearily. “Yeah, he’ll be just fine. Now, what were your ideas?”

“Well …” Abe grabbed his bag with clumsy hands and started pulling out papers he did not need, papers from school and from Decathlon practice, until he finally found the right stack. He’d made a few notes, a few sketches, nothing ground-breaking, but he was proud all the same.

“I was thinking. Since eight of you agreed to participate …” He looked up, waiting for some sort of confirmation and at Stark’s quick nod, he continued. “Well, how about every Avenger has their own stall, where they show _something._ Like, I don’t know, one of their abilities or their weapons or their costumes or …”

He looked up, sensing a shift in the air. Sure enough, Stark’s eyes weren’t with him anymore. They’d gone distant, focused on something beyond Abe’s shoulder, and when he turned around, there was Peter.

 _So much for him being home sick_ , Abe thought at first. But then he regarded the other teen more carefully.

Peter looked disheveled and sleepy. He was wearing Iron Man pajamas and a sweatshirt thrown on haphazardly, one of his arms in a sling. When he moved, he did so stiffly. He shuffled forwards, into the room, and it was all the incentive Tony Stark needed to jump up from his chair.

“Hey, Pete! Pete?” The man waited until Peter’s eyes focused on him. He’d walked right up to the boy and put a hand on his shoulder, leaning down to be able to look straight into Parker’s eyes. “What are you doing here?”

Peter blinked lazily and shrugged. “Couldn’t sleep anymore,” he said, yawning. “I’ve been sleeping the whole day.”

Abe couldn’t see Stark’s face, but he was pretty sure he sensed the man rolling his eyes. “Come here and sit down. Wanna eat something?”

“No, thanks.”

Tony Stark led the boy over to the table and Peter seemed to notice Abe only now.

“Look who’s come by,” Mister Stark put in helpfully.

Peter frowned, then grinned, then frowned again. Then he paled. “Oh, my God, I forgot!”

Stark pushed him into a chair and went to get him a glass of water. “It’s okay, Pete –”

“No, Abe, I’m _so_ sorry, I should have called, but I completely forgot and Mister Stark took my phone because I spent too much time on the internet …”

Right.

Of course _Tony Stark_ had taken Peter’s phone. What else was new?

As Peter’s ramblings continued, slipping farther and farther to the back of his thoughts, Abe found himself a little irritated. Because Peter was right, he _should_ have called. He shouldn’t have hung Abe out to dry like that. But then Stark was back, setting the glass of water down in front of Peter and placing a hand on the boy’s shoulder, making him shut up instantly together with Abe’s angry thoughts. The engineer squatted, his knees creaking, and folded the top of the Iron Man pajamas back to reveal Peter’s bare stomach.

Abe got his first look at Peter’s bandaged side.

Tony Stark examined the bandages intently, then let the shirt slip back down and smiled up at his intern. “Looks good.”

“Thanks, _dad_ ,” Peter huffed, acting annoyed. “I could have told you that.”

“Well, you also could have lied about that, so it’s always better to check.”

“What’s all this?” A sudden voice made Abe jump. He reeled around and realized that Black Widow had crept up on him without his notice. She could have cut his throat or broken his neck or poisoned him and he would never have seen her coming. As unsurprising as this revelation was, Abe still found it horribly unsettling.

Even more unsettling was the fact that Black Widow was holding _his_ rough sketches for the fundraiser and reading _his_ squiggled notes. She sat down, followed soon by Hawkeye and the Falcon.

Abe wanted for the ground to swallow him.

He also wanted to protest, or to say anything at all, but before he’d gathered his courage, Peter was already talking, a bright smile playing on his lips.

“ _Those_ are plans for the fundraised you agreed to participate in,” the boy said smugly as Tony Stark sat down next to him and Captain Rogers casually leaned against the wall.

Black Widow huffed. “I only agreed because Clint lost a bet.”

Peter chuckled. “That doesn’t make any sense and you know it.”

“ _Fine._ ” She glared at him. “ _I_ lost a bet, but you tell anyone that and I’ll have to kill you _and_ them.”

Peter ran a finger over his lips, imitated locking them and throwing away the key. “My lips are sealed.”

“Then how are you still talking?”

“I’m fine, by the way. Thanks for asking.”

“That’s great, Pete,” Captain Steve Rogers offered and smiled sincerely. “We were all worried.”

“Speak for yourself, Steve,” Natasha said, but her lips quirked and Abe detected a teasing undertone in her cold statement.

Mister Stark had apparently had enough. He clapped his hands. “Okay, kiddies, I have a few things to discuss with Mister Brown here, so if you don’t mind …”

“Oh, we don’t mind,” the Falcon chimed in now. He was munching on a candy bar and he let his eyes roam over Abe in a very grave, very disconcerting manner. “Discuss away.”

But none of them moved and Abe had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach.

A few seconds passed, nothing happened, and then Tony Stark sighed. “Whatever.” He turned back to Abe. “Where were we?”

“Uh …”

His mind spun as he tried to force it back to his plans. _The fundraiser, right._ He gulped, looking down at the table. The silence was not helping and neither were the very audible breaths of four superheroes, echoing in the soundless bubble his words were supposed to fill, any moment now, as soon as possible, _Abe, come on, you can talk_.

“Well, uh …” He reminded himself to breathe. “Well, I thought every one of you guys could have your own stall and you could show something?”

“Like what?” Tony Stark pushed patiently.

“Like, for example, an ability? Or an explanation of how something works or … I don’t know, something like that.”

“I suppose I could let people hold my shield a little, show them my uniform. Would that work?” Captain Rogers asked.

Abe nodded gratefully. “Yeah, that would be great.” He let go a breath of air. “That would be fantastic.”

“I could show them –” Hawkeye began, but he was cut off by the Black Widow.

“Your bow,” she said. “Of course you’ll show them your bow.”

He mock glared at her. “Oh, yeah? What are _you_ going to be doing, then? Hardly be more original.”

Black Widow smirked for the tiniest of seconds. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

“Ugh, Bruce is going to make things explode again,” the Falcon said, rolling his eyes. Black Widow nodded.

“And let’s not even get started on Thor!” she added solemnly.

They all laughed, all except for Abe. Peter noticed his confusion, cleared his throat and explained, “Thor _really_ loves showing off his hammer.”

Abe’s eyes widened. “Are you saying he’s going to bring Mjölnir?”

“Most probably,” Peter said.

“Definitely,” Black Widow corrected at the same moment as Tony Stark said, “Of course.”

“Is he … Is he going to let people try and lift it?” Abe marveled shyly.

Falcon’s eyes narrowed, taking him in. He had finished his candy bar and thrown the wrapper over his shoulder, ignoring Stark’s and Captain Rogers’s twin glares. “Would you like to try, kid?”

Abe nodded timidly, shrinking back into his chair.

There was a beat of silence.

Then, “Friday?”

“Yes, Boss?”

“Let Thor know that a kid wants to try to lift his hammer,” Tony said casually, as if he were asking someone to bring him a lemonade.

Abe whipped his head around and his mind spun with the motion. Or, with everything else that was happening. He listened carefully and a few seconds later, the answer came. “Mister Thor is asking whether it is the Spider again.”

Tony Stark’s face fell for a second, but he caught himself quickly. “Tell him it’s not Spider-Man.”

A few moments’ pause.

“Mister Thor is on his way now.”

“Thanks, Fri.”

“You are very welcome, Boss.”

And just like that, Abe’s fate was sealed.

He looked at all of the Avengers seated around him, trying to figure out if his leg was being pulled. But they had already moved on with their conversation and when his gaze landed on Peter, his classmate only gave him an encouraging smile. The boy looked a little silly in his Iron Man pajamas and with his tousled hair and his sleepy eyes, but he also looked at home.

He looked _at home._

The thought struck Abe suddenly, but there was no time to chase after it because that was the moment Thor chose for his entrance, and his entrance was nothing short of grand.

Abe stared with bated breath.

The god of thunder was wearing his full armor, including his red cape. His light hair fell onto his shoulders, his form a boulder even in the huge living room that should have dwarfed him like it had dwarfed everyone else.

In his right hand, he held Mjölnir.

Abe had not realized he’d jumped up, but he was standing, mouth open and hands braced against the table for support.

His hearing cut in again.

“Just don’t let that one near it,” Black Widow was saying. She bobbed her head in Peter’s direction.

_What?_

Peter flushed and looked down. “ _Nat._ We agreed we weren’t going to talk about that.”

“I agreed to nothing.”

Abe could not help but make a few steps in the god’s direction, his motions slow and controlled, but also bursting with excited energy. “Thor?” he breathed, unsure if the word had come out at all.

The god’s eyes settled on him. “Hello, Friend of Peter.”

He did not know how to respond, and even if he had, he wouldn’t have been able to utter a single word.

“He wasn’t that speechless when he met me,” Tony Stark muttered in the background.

“Well, you’re no god, Mister Stark,” Peter said cheekily and Abe heard a swat and a laugh, but he could hardly focus on any of it. It was all he could do to follow the actual _god of thunder_ when he stepped up to the table and set the hammer down with a theatrical _thump._

“Here you go,” Thor said, stepping back with a spark in his eye. He motioned to the hammer and Abe gaped at it in awe.

It looked heavy.

But it did not look _that_ heavy.

He took his time, conscious of the eyes on him. The _powerful_ and _amazing_ eyes on him. He placed his hands on the beautifully decorated hilt and closed them into fists, sliding them up and down, looking for the right spot. As if he’d have known the right spot if it danced on his nose.

Then he pulled.

Nothing happened. He breathed in through his nose, breathed out through his mouth, strained his muscles and pulled again.

Nothing.

It did not even budge.

He let go of it, stepped back, then smiled. “It works!” he exclaimed, looking around eagerly.

The room was silent save Thor’s booming laugh. Tony Stark watched Abe musingly, worrying his bottom lip. Then he turned to the others and said, “So much for my theory.” He looked down at Peter with something akin to pride.

Abe understood nothing.

“Did I do something?” he said, cocking his brows and looking around again, and again, from face to face to face. Something like panic registered. “Was I not supposed to –”

“No, no, you did just fine, kid,” said Captain Rogers and smiled calmly at him. Out of all of them, the super soldier seemed most willing to make him feel welcome. “None of us can move the hammer either; we weren’t really expecting you to do it.”

“Except we were,” Hawkeye quipped.

Abe did not understand. At all.

Steve sighed and the Falcon rolled his eyes. “Peter can move the hammer,” he said without preamble and Abe’s gaze shot to his classmate. Peter flushed, turning angry eyes on the Falcon.

“ _Sam_.”

“Right, and we thought it might be connected to his age somehow,” Tony Stark continued to explain, ignoring Peter’s weak protests. “But apparently, it has to do with something else.”

“Okay, great, can we all just go back to whatever we were doing before all this?” Peter said, standing up. Apparently intending to walk away.

“ _You can lift Mjölnir?_ ” Abe shrieked belatedly, his eyes shining. He could hardly believe his ears. He’d been Peter’s classmate for a while now and he’d never known about this? “Dude, why didn’t you say something? That’s so cool!”

Peter scratched the back of his head, looking down at the ground. “Right.”

“It would shut Flash up immediately, that’s for sure.”

“You can’t tell Flash,” Peter warned instantly, looking ready to panic. “You can’t tell anyone. Besides, it’s not like they’ll believe you anyway.”

“Okay, okay. Chill.” Abe sighed, turning his head back to the table. “Show me.”

Peter shrugged and walked up to the hammer. Before he could get a hold of the weapon, however, Tony Stark put a hand on his chest. “Maybe that’s not such a great idea right now, Pete.”

Parker waved off. “Don’t worry, Mister Stark. It’s really not that heavy.”

“Not that …” Stark spluttered, but Peter had already moved around him and grabbed the hammer off the table as if it weighed no more than a common pen.

Thor’s laugh rumbled through the room once more. “The Man of Spiders is still worthy!”

Abe’s world froze for a second, zooming out of focus, then started spinning three times as fast as before.

Tony Stark was suddenly standing right next to him, saying something about non-disclosure agreements and piling words Abe did not quite understand on top of that. Behind the engineer’s back, Peter stood, expression frozen in horror. He looked small and pitiful, child-like, the hammer in his slack hand like a toy from another world.

Abe could not stop staring at him.

He’d always known that he would one day be saying, “Peter Parker? Yeah, I knew him, we went to school together.” And he’d known he would be saying this to some very important people. Peter’s easy kindness and blinding intelligence had never indicated anything less.

But this was bigger than anything he could have ever imagined. This was a whole other pair of shoes right there. He hadn’t quite put all the pieces together yet and he would not let himself. That was a task for later, when he wasn’t surrounded by Earth’s mightiest heroes.

Even so, it was suddenly clear.

He looked at Peter, at his silly pajamas and disheveled form, and he saw someone else. He would always see someone else now. Not just the boy missing Decathlon Practice. There had been a reason behind that. Not just the man who could wield Mjölnir. There had to be a reason behind _that_ as well. There had to be so many reasons, such depths behind the kid who went to school with him and looked normal.

If Pepper Potts had not let her successes go to her head, Peter hadn’t either. He was still the boy who was late for Decathlon practice, and the man who could wield Mjölnir, and the boy who helped Abe organize a fundraiser, and the man who had saved all their lives during _the_ _Attack_ , and the boy who could hardly hide the flush on his cheeks whenever he was in the same room with Michelle, and the man who _never, ever_ retaliated when Flash decided to pick on him again.

And apparently the Man of Spiders.

A moment ago, Abe hadn’t understood the way the hammer worked. Now he thought he did. He couldn’t explain it, not with words, but he grasped something that maybe should have been out of his reach. A simple truth, weighty all the same.

Normally, the more you got to know a person, the more of their flaws you discovered, until you knew all of them and you either liked them or you didn’t.

With Peter, it was different.

He wore his flaws on his sleeve, little, unimportant things as they were. The more you got to know him, the more strengths you discovered, strengths that outweighed everything else a hundredfold, and in the end, you could not help but like him.

If Abe had been in Peter’s place, he would have run outside the minute he realized he could pick up Thor’s fabled hammer, and he would have revealed it to the world. Next, he would have knocked on Flash’s door and put the bully in his place. Or, at least, he would have dreamed of doing it.

But Peter had not once in his life used any of his abilities to his advantage like that.

That was exactly why Abe couldn’t wield Mjölnir, and why Peter could. There was a logic to it, behind the magic and the legends, and come to think of it, Abe really could not picture anyone worthier than Peter Parker, the little nerd from Queens.

**Author's Note:**

> Wow, we only have one story to go here! I'm really excited about it, too. Anyone want to guess whose POV I decided to keep for last? Have a beautiful day!


End file.
